laevo-Linalool FEMA 2635

Froot Loop Flavor

My parents never bought sugar cereal. I had to go to Grandma’s house for the “good cereal”. Froot Loops is a cereal Grandma would buy for me and I remember the characteristic sweet citrusy smell of this cereal.

laevo-Linalool

Linalool is a terpene alcohol, meaning it a component found in many plants. It can be found naturally in citrus, bergamot, coriander, cinnamon, rosewood, laurel, mint, basil, birch, berries, grape, celery, peas, potatoes, cloves, cumin, mustard., etc.

Linalool is an inexpensive flavor material. It finds its way into many flavor and perfume formulas. It’s especially important for papaya flavor (it characterizes the fruit), mango, berry and citrus flavors. There is a patent on a blueberry flavor formula that consists of cis-3-hexenol and Linalool in a 1:1 ratio http://ip.com/patfam/en/24431763.

My Impression

Personally, I feel that Linalool adds depth and creaminess to flavor formulas. It is used in papaya flavor at high amounts because it is characterizing, but most other flavors need only a teeny bit of linalool to positively affect the final flavor. Typically, I reach for the linalool with most every flavor I create: peach, strawberry, mango, tea, herbal and orange.

As much as I love linalool, more than 95% of linalool is used in cosmetics, soaps, perfumes, household cleaner and only 1% is added to food and beverages. These stats reflect the teeny tiny amount needed to make a flavor. In 2000, over 12,000 tons of linalool were produced; with about half of the production coming from natural plant terpenes. http://www.chem.unep.ch/irptc/sids/oecdsids/78706.pdf

Linalool is a chemical that we encounter everyday, not just in the flavor lab.